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This lavishly illustrated book documents the most distinguished works from the Metropolitan Museum's extensive collection of domestic, ecclesiastical, and presentation silver from the Colonial and Federal periods. Detailed discussions provide a stylistic and socio-historical context for each piece, offering a wealth of new information to both specialist and non-specialist readers. Every object is documented with new photography that captures details, marks, and heraldic engraving. Finally, accompanying essays discuss issues of patronage and provenance, design and craft, and patterns of ownership and collecting, providing windows onto the past that help bring these pieces to life.

Beth Carver Wees is curator of American decorative arts, and Medill Higgins Harvey is a research associate in the American Wing, both at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

"Detailed discussion provide a stylistic and socio-historical context for each piece, offering a wealth of new information to both specialist and non-specialist readers."-The Journal of Antiques and Collectibles The Journal of Antiques and Collectibles